IamROCKAS's Reviews

Breathless (1960)

9/10

A movie with an anti-hero that seduced not only his love interest but also us into liking him

1 August 2023

This year's "Kinas po zvaigdemis" (eng. - "Cinema Under the Stars) festival in Vilnius has a strong repertoire but, unfortunately, I booked a trip abroad and won't be able to enjoy most of it. My options for the first week were limited due to time restraints, but I managed to choose to watch the French new wave entry "Breathless" because, with the given movie descriptions, it felt like something I am least familiar with so far.

In my opinion, this movie has done something remarkable - they created a character that should be hated by everyone for his misogynistic views, but he possesses such a level of charm that it is enough to not only seduce his love interest but also us, the viewer. I can't really tell why, most of his comments regarding women were objectifying, but at the same time, you don't expect anything less from his persona, who's rarely seen without a cigarette in his mouth.

The dynamic between Michel and Patricia is sensual in a way that I've only found between people who are really close to each other - you know, the kind of relationship where you could say the most horrible things to each other without hurting each other and fully understanding what was implied with those words. The kind of comfortability that I envy amongst people with healthy friend groups or relationships. Besides this, the intimacy between these two never seemed boring to me. I can't really tell how long the scene in the hotel room took, but it felt like a big chunk of the movie and I've never felt bored, not after the first time Michel whined, not after the 2nd one and not even after the 20-something time.

This movie was intimate, thrilling, suspenseful, it had a great score to accompany the mood, wonderful views of Paris and it was shot in a delightful way. I'm a big fan of long shots where a scene plays out with little or no cuts at all and this movie was shot in that way exactly, so I could just sit and admire it for most of it's run.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

8/10

Kind of remind me of my life - knowing nothing about what I do and not having a plan does sound like me

1 August 2023

What a beautiful place... to be with friends.

Harry Potter's 7th installment goes full-on survival mode for our protagonists. We're no longer surrounded by the comfort of Hogwarts' walls and most allies are trying to survive for themselves. This grim world with Voldemort in power is both beautiful (metaphorically) and scary.

Even though the atmosphere is mostly desperate with no clear direction of where to go, I loved all these little moments the movie created to lighten up the atmosphere. The shot of Harry and Hermione dancing and going from glum to smiling for a little bit was probably my favorite shot in the movie for its natural comforting manner. Of course, it's not a key moment in the movie, but it's just something that made me feel very human (my obsession with coming-of-age stories is coming out during Harry Potter movies now, great...).

Since the story of the last book was split into two movies, the first one (this one) didn't feel rushed at all. In fact, this felt like a story with many layers, filled with action, drama, thriller elements that felt more mature than the previous installments.

And my obsession with villains also started showing, as I was gasping with each scene where Voldemort was present. There weren't a lot but each of them felt menacing and I truly feel like Voldemort might be the villain that defined a generation, sort of like Darth Vader in the 70's and 80's or slasher movie villains (Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers) during the 80's.

I think this film was an improvement in both the tone and the storytelling, creating a wonderful experience that takes us into a dystopia of a wizard world.

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Barbie (I) (2023)

5/10

All fun and all conflicting

1 August 2023

I'm not gonna pretend that the first bit of the movie didn't make me think of Marklar - the fictional planet that is inhabited by Marklars, who refer to all people, places and things and Marklar. I swear that the energy of Barbie just saying "Hi Barbie" or "Hi Ken" and specific Barbies or Kens reacting back was pretty much the same. Also, the whole plotline kind of reminded me of Wreck-It Ralph (2012), as the idea that a fictional character must leave his digital/fantasy home has some similar connotations in the storytelling.

I can say that I had some fun during the movie. I'm not a big fan of comedies but there were genuine moments where I did have a laugh. At the same time, there were a lot of moments where the nature of the comedy just didn't resonate with me well. To be completely honest, if I had done some research prior to watching this movie and had noticed that Will Ferrell was part of the cast, I probably wouldn't even think about watching the movie (long story short - I just cannot stand his style of comedy) but thankfully, on Barbie he wasn't a major character and his presence wasn't half bad.

Now to address the elephant in the room - as a white male, I've never felt comfortable talking about patriarchy, feminism, genderism, etc. I just feel that, as a man, I'm not in a position to understand the struggles of a woman. I can say I can relate to their problems, but I can't step into their shoes to actually feel them. So, during political media courses when we covered gender studies, sexually and similar topics or when we went through the literature of Judith Butler and similar authors, I was just lost and felt completely incompetent. I still feel lost to some extent. Even though this movie was highly satirical, I still felt uncomfortable that various stereotypes, both of male and female quirks, were presented as signs of weaknesses. Both masculinine and feminine traits (which I'd argue don't "exist" outside of discourse) create such an atmosphere where neither men or women can live together without one of them submitting to the other. It was more saddening than funny to see it playout. Both the patriarchy taking control and the women taking the power back segments just felt uncomfortable and even the music tracks didn't make it better for me.

I mostly went to see the movie out of curiosity as I had hints of there being political underlines and corporative positioning (as in how ideas are sold instead of products, creating a fake sensation of wants and even needs) ideas in a movie that covers the pink Barbie world where life is fantastic. Unfortunately, I felt disappointed in that regard, but the happy vibes did get to me, especially in the first half of the movie, so I can't say my experience with the movie was that bad.

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Suspicion (1941)

8/10

When manipulative personalities create a veil of fear and distrust

25 July 2023

How do we deal with suspicious personalities around us? Well, this movie takes it to the extreme when manipulative spouses create such an atmosphere that every negative event around is somehow linked to the said person. Manipulation creates an atmosphere of distrust that is similar to the "boy who cried wolf" - even when the manipulative party is visually inactive, we still raise our suspisions to find links how the manipulative party worked around to achieve their mischevious plans.

Even us, the viewer, fall into the trap of suspicion that makes us accuse the manipulative party even without any concrete evidence. That just means the movie has achieved in portraying how manipulative personalities emotionally ruin those close to them and what madness lies in the head of the devoted manipulated. I find this Hitchcock movie rather fascinating on the physological realm. Besides the mentioned points, we also get to witness how the spouse experiences inner turmoil between love for her husband and hate for his manipulative ways unfolds.

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Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

6/10

It's okay but I'll be the bad guy that will reject this as a masterpiece most people claim it to be

23 July 2023

Warning: Spoilers

Like many this weekend, I spend it in a pact theatre watching one of the most hyped-up movies this summer. Unfortunately for me, not only was the theatre packed but the air-conditioning was out of order too, so it got warm and humid in there quick. If it weren't for this, I could tell whether some of the people in the audience left the movie because they weren't interested (in particular - there were a pair of girls next to me whom kept checking their phones - I counted six instances before they left around the time Jean Tatlock died. I didn't check the time so I can't tell how far into the movie that was) or due to the heat in the theater.

The movie itself didn't meet up my expectations but I still managed to enjoy it. Does that mean my expectations are too high or did the movie simply not appeal to me? Well, let's try to answer that by discussing for whom this movie is - in other words, what's the prototype of the viewer this movie is build for. I think it would be best to start by quickly describing what the movie is about but here we meet our first challenge - I'm not confident enough to say that this movie is primarily about Oppenheimer and his quest to build the atomic bomb. No, this movie is more of a court drama with a backstory presented in stretched flashback and an epilogue under a veil of overwhelming drama but the movie also has nods to multiple conspiracy theories that were popular at the present time. The movie also mentions various other impactful events, like the McCartney anti-communist program that requires some context to grasp the the impact it has on Oppenheimer and the connections the links to communism (Elizabeth Cox case, for example) and I feel like context around Lewis Strauss is also important in order to decode some of the messages to fully understand the gravity of the situation. So it seems that the movie is all over the place with some links that require a specific cultural capital to connect all the dots. Having that in mind, I can only determine that this movie is build for those who have a wide understanding of the US history, especially regarding the context of the Manhattan project and the discourse that followed it.

One thing that did bother me quite a lot was the portrait of a scientist and the science community that this movie attempts to push. It's in no ways a negative connotation but it isn't a honest one either as it's the most evident signifier of commercialization - to say it mildly, every one that represented science in some way was presented as a witty fellow that spends most of his time talking, discussing theoretical phenomena and coming to the conclusions on the dot. At a certain point doing the movie, there was a critical remark suggesting that Oppenheimer stopped being a physicist a while ago and he's more of a politician now. To some extent, I'd have to agree because most of the scientist were portrayed more like politicians. Apart from the basic quantum mechanics principles and paradoxes that we're mentioned early in the movie, most of the scientific discourse didn't have a clear message to connotate it's magnitude.

On the flipside, I loved the idea how the creation of the atomic bomb in way did start off the chain event that will lead to the destruction of the world. The whole discourse regarding the moral and the philosophical consequences of the atomic bomb after the successful test was just magnificent and in a way that's when the real movie has started for me. The scenes with exquisite sound design and hallucination-like visuals of how the people in the room from Oppenheimer's perspective might look under the atomic blast were breathtaking. The ideas of having blood on your hand just for taking part in creating a weapon of mass-destruction are mind-boggling. And the visuals, the visuals at certain scenes do deserve all the praise. Although the story took too many "off-road" turns, at least in my opinion, I still want to commend the story to be rather comprehensible, even though it wasn't linear at all and had multiple jumps in time. After just one watch I can't tell whether the switch from color to black & white scenes helped to grasp the time jumps or not, perhaps it's just the room or surrounding or the context itself that helped connect the timeline in order, but the presentation in such of the story in such a way did help me to understand the story just a little bit better, leaving only the questions in context behind.

Overall, I can't say this is a bad movie in any way possible but I can't say that I particularly liked it either. The hype for the movie was real - whether it was reddit post showcasing the massive film reel of this movie or early film reviewers portraying this movie as an important landmark in cinema - but I feel the hype also ruined the movie for me a bit as I definitely didn't meet the expectations it set off for me. At the end of the day, I'm just happy most movie snobs and just casual movie viewers can enjoy and appreciate this as a cinema marvel. Even though I don't fall into that category, I must admit that the general discourse surrounding this movie does make me happy and the fact that it made a lot of people look into such an influential figure in modern history is great too.

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Ringu (1998)

8/10

Everyone knows the story by now but the movie is still worth it

23 July 2023

I remember back when I was a kid (7 or 8 years old), there were already talks about this movie. The word "Skambutis" (en: Ring) still has a strong connotation linked with this movie as it's a cult classic. I even watched it after being exposed to it by my older cousins and even though I don't remember 95% of the plot, I do remember the chills (it's worth to mentiom that I watched the english adaptation if the movie back then). So how do these memories hold up to the original?

Well, the movie is great - you're under the constant pressure and the tone of the movie always makes you feel like something bad might happen at any second. Of course we have some very iconic scenes and a lot is left for us to see berween the lines, which makes for a great personal experience. I'm not a big fan of the supernatural but this concept mostly works for me.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

7/10

The only Harry movie to be nominated for an Oscar is alright!

22 July 2023

While reading the 6th book, I had this mild confusion about when professor Slughorn named his social-club "The Slug Club. Only this movie made me reliaze that his name is actually SLUGhorn, as the lithuanian language adaptation I was reading lists him as proffesor TRUMPET. Languages are weird and funny sometimes, am I right?

Regarding the movie, I like the tone of this one just a little bit better than the previous one. It also served us with the biggest loss in the series so far. Add some rom-com elements into there, some banter and slick dialogue (shoutout to proffesor McGonagall) some drama elements amd here you go - we have a relatively tame movie that tells a neat story.

I feel like this movie in particulqr might get sligly underlooked as it wasn't as groundbreaking as the previous ones, there wasn't a big fight scene or a whole lot of action - like a calm before a storm before the final two movies in a way - but, for me, this movie had the "it" factor that made the experience feel real in a sense that it explained a lot, it hinted at a lot of what's to come and it ever experimented, making it an unique watch that didn't stay within the boundaries of the book.

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Stalag 17 (1953)

9/10

Rare comedy that's more that just a laughing simulator

18 July 2023

Stalag 17 is one of those rare comedies that has a good plot, and a good story that used comedic action and comedic dialogues to charm everything up. There are moments that I would consider to be a bit on the black side of comedy, the subtle jokes can be looked at as quite edgy considering they are all POWs of a fascist regime but the lighthearted nature of the movie kind of masks it. That lightheartedness also normalizes some of the horrible things going around and makes prison life even look fun but, for the sake of the movie, I think this kind of emotion is perfect.

I also low the progression of a mystery in this movie. Early on only we, the viewers, get to know how the mole is communicating with the prison guards and that makes our eyes peeled to see who's leaving the signals. We're the ones playing detective at that point as, besides the mole, not one other prisoner knows about the code yet, so that gives us the power that no one else in the story has yet to start solving the mystery.

Overall, there are multiple viewing levels that take place - the previously mentioned detective viewing, where we try to solve the mystery pretty much everyone thinks it's the wrong guy (of course, only we, the main suspect and the mole know it's not him); the relationship viewing, where we try to get to know the vast spectrum of the prisoners and the prison personnel, who have their own roles and quirks; and the shenanigans viewing, where we just get a brief rest from the rest of the viewing experiences and get to refresh ourselves with comedic mischief, pranks or just clever banter.

I didn't expect to like this movie this much as the first few acts made me uneasy with where the comedy is going - with the male prisoners sending lewd remarks to the Russian women prisoners and the German prison guards being the "funny uncle" type, trying to pretend to be persuaded by sweet talk and laughing a lot, I had early expectations that most of the jokes would be in bad taste but, to my surprise, they weren't and when they were, I laughed, although with a little bit of guilt.

Overall, this might be one of my favorite movies with a war theme, along with Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Swing Kids (2018). I guess when it comes to the war genre, ironically, comedy is the best supplement for me to like the movie.

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I Will Buy You (1956)

9/10

The morality of immoral practices

16 July 2023

The premise of the movie is rather unique and I feel it's even more meaningful nowadays - it is about a sporting scout trying to recruit the next promising young star to join his team. Like a vulture, from the very beginning, he is looking for weaknesses in the coaching staff of the young star and he quickly starts enjoying moderate success as he gets close to the coach of the star, the star's family, and his girlfriend, who, at he describes as a chameleon as he's unsure how to bend her in his favor.

After a while, a lot of moral and ethical issues come to light as he starts questioning whether what he is doing is right or if it is just the price of his job to be dealing with such issues. As the scout of rivaling teams is also interested in the young star, the whole situation starts a discourse that describes the ambitions to get the star as a war where instead of bombs money is used.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

6/10

Getting darker with the story

16 July 2023

I'm not exactly sure why but the fifth installment in the Harry Potter movie franchise just didn't feel all that right. It could be the fatigue of watching a new Harry Potter movie every weekend hitting in. It could be the fact that the longest entry in the Harry Potter book series is adapted into the shortest movie so far (for comparison, the first movie is 2 hours and 32 minutes long while this one is 2 hours and 18 minutes long, even though the first book is 223 pages long while the fifth book is 766 pages long - the fifth book is almost 3,5 times as long). It could simply be the fact that we have passed the line of magic being a new exciting medium and now we have magic being a part of this dark world where dark wizards pose a serious threat and the Ministry of Magic works as a censoring regime - kind of contrasting to the feeling when you grow up and realizing how much being a grown-up sucks. This movie isn't bad but psychologically it feels a bit grim watching it for the said reasons (apart from the mentioned fatigue, that's just the subjective factor I think might have an effect on my feelings).

For me, what makes this movie good is the variety of antagonists - the portrayal of such hatable characters is impressive, to say the least. The biggest standouts are Umbridge and Bellatrix - in a way, they are my favorite characters in this movie as the actors drain every inch of our hatred with their performances not by being bad actors but by doing their roles so well to make us emotionally burst out and feel the intended hatred for them. Umbridge tries to play an innocent sweet lady who wants to be friends with her students but, in reality, she has sadistic tendencies when it comes to discipline and order (I'd argue she prefers torture over teaching), and Bellatrix (fun realization - she's played by the same actress that played Marla Singer in Fight Club!) is an escaped convict that returns to the ranks of the Death Eaters and laughs at the idea of killing and torture like it's the most fun thing ever.

There are multiple elements that didn't work out in the story for me: firstly, it is the love plotline with Harry and Cho - is it underdeveloped, I wanted to root for them but in the movie, it felt a bit unnatural, we barely even got to explore the character of Cho; secondly, the Department of Mysteries fight scenes were uninspiring before the Order of the Phoenix members showed up - the attempted escape, although cool visually, felt a bit weird plot-wise and too convenient, the action sequences didn't spark a particular interest in me either but I'm willing to forget about it due to the Death Eaters and Order of the Phoenix fighting scenes later one, especially the sequence where Harry and Sirius are synchronized when fighting two other Death Eaters (and Sirius calling Harry "James" like he felt sentimental as if he was fighting alongside Harry's father); lastly - the ending, I feel like there was so little closure to everything that happened and the montage of newspaper article headlines just felt like a cheap summery of what happened following the events after the final act.

Overall, this is my least favorite Harry Potter film so far but it's a tough competition as the previous installments were amazing and had their own share of iconic moments that pulled their own weight. The Order of the Phoenix is still a good movie and prepares us for the next installment, hopefully a bit more polished one.

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Bicycle Thieves (1948)

8/10

What is fair and what is right? This movie gives philosophical dilemmas a whole new meaning

15 July 2023

Life isn't fair and this movie portrays that in the most devastating way - by showing how a person is broken by injustice and how it makes the said person continue the chain of injustice by attempting to break somebody else. The biggest takeaway is the reflection of the real world - how communities tend to defend their own through the thin and thick, sometimes even protecting the crimes committed by their own members. We have an instinct to defend those who we care about, and we also have an instinct to provide for those we care about these needs are higher than those of others, who don't belong to our community, so sometimes by fulfilling our needs for the community we become blind to the needs of others and end up hurting others on the path of providing to our communities. This becomes brutally evident in the movie when a member of their community gets accused of stealing a bike and they, knowing him as nice, and kind, seeing how he could never hurt a fly, jump to the conclusion that these claims are false without even acknowledging the accusers' claims. The strength of the communities has the power to make everyone stronger but it also conflicts with other individuals and communities when it comes to choosing between mutual goods and personal (community) goods and, unfortunately, most would first choose the social capital by choosing what is mostly beneficial to them and their communities and not for all parties that can be affected from those choices.

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Blue Velvet (1986)

9/10

Such intensity mixed with perfect storytelling and dialogue

13 July 2023

This isn't my first David Lynch movie and this time I came prepared to see his sexual depictions come to life. However, I don't think anything could have prepared me for the physiological intensity he portrays when depicting sex and sexuality in Blue Velvet - when it comes to these themes, David Lynch likes to tease us and makes us feel uncomfortable but also curious. He perfectly understands the male gaze and how we unconsciously are led by it, therefore he teases us by providing us with interactions that make us question our perversion. Jeffrey, before breaking into Dorothy's apartment, even gets questioned whether he's a perfect or a detective, and, at this point, the same scene reflects onto us, as instead of following the signifiers of a mystery, we end up getting distracted by the female body. Being aware of this, David Lynch wants us to question our choices by depicting the most bizarre sexual interactions possible.

Besides that, there's a lot I have to commend in this movie.

First of all, the dialogues were great - whether it's romantic interactions between Jeffrey and Sandy or an intense swear-intelligent storm of whatever comes out of Frank's mouth, the level of joy from just 'listening' to what people have to say is highly remarkable, kind of reminding of 40's and 50's cinema, that featured a lot of witty monologues provides by actors with godly voices.

Secondly, speaking of Frank, his presence, which sparks fear combined with an overflow of chaos, made each scene with him tense - he's the kind of character that you can't get your eyes off, the kind that makes you fear that he might snap at any second, resulting in someone getting hurt or worse, therefore, you couldn't rest for a moment when he's on the screen.

Lastly, I'd like to give out a shoutout to the mystery of the movie - it quickly falls out of the primary gaze spectrum but, looking back into it now, I think it was provided in an entertaining fashion. There were points I thought the movie would take a nihilistic turn, similar to the one on Under the Silver Lake (2018), but no, we actually get the full picture (conveniently for us, it was even summed up by Jeffrey during a dialogue with Sandy at various points) and we're introduced to it it step by step, even though Jeffrey's intentions to seeing Dorothy don't end up being related to his 'detective' intentions after a certain point.

To sum it up a little, Blue Velvet is a great movie. From uncomfortable (or, at very least, bizarre to the point that it makes the casual viewer gasp or react in another way) depictions of sex to a mystery plot, that involves two romantic interests and one overly-intense antagonist, this movie pulls you in and doesn't let you go for the entirety of its runtime.

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Shwisaseuleul geunheola (1971)

6/10

Interesting concept, interesting setting, the comedic tone is a bit overflowing

12 July 2023

The movie, from my understanding, takes place while Korea and Manchuria were under Japanese control, so pre-WW2. The japanese serve as the primary antagonists here but the real conflict of interest is between the three protagonist - mischiefs from different background who all are fuelled by greed to partake on a common task. What makes the chemistry between them so fascinating is that they are so open about betraying eachother at some point.

Their main goal is to hunt down a golder Buddha statue - they manage to complete this part of the task but then end up stealing and trying to run away from the others to achieve their personal goals, whether to gain reputation, money or prestige - but the real underlying meaning is of patriotism, of the Korean resistance. One of the protagonists was already a member of the resistance while the other two didn't care two much, one of them even was a former collaborator for the japanese. While money for the statue or respect from the japanese might of been more important for them in the beginning, the set of events ended up with them believing in a free Korea.

Although that's the premise, it's also important to address the comedy element in the movie. I must admit, that each of the actors had a great laugh, epsecially those with a deeper voice, but at some points I found myself curious how long of a segment we could get if we just combined every single moment somebody just laughted during the movie. I wouldn't call it annoying but there was a point during the movie where I just couldn't help but thing that the amount of scenes where the actors are laughing is wild.

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Sopyonje (1993)

9/10

Amazing display that mixes cultural, musical and domestic aspects

9 July 2023

Pansori - the traditional Korean musical storytelling, which is performed by a singer and a drummer, is the key component in this movie. If I were to describe it, I'd compare it heart that fuels this movie and makes it function - it encompasses the Korean culture during the period when Japanese and Western influences are taking over the Korean peninsula.

This movie isn't a musical but music is everywhere around the three main characters and music, or rather - the continuation of this traditional kind of music - is the main motivator for everything. For one, it's the task to save it; for the second, it's the task to please her father; and for the third - it's the task to convince them that Pansori isn't profitable anymore. Each of them had different views on the music and the music filled them up in a different way, creating this unorthodox father-pupil family tandem. Even though their trio broke up and broke them up emotionally, the chain of events concluded with one of the most powerful musical exhibitions in the cinema I've ever seen. The raw emotional display, the sadness mixed with guilt, pity, and remorse, the closure that is both making the audience cry and making the audience feel immense joy - everything that comes into making this movie has an effect that sincerely moves people. At the very least, it moved me more than anything else recently and I couldn't be happier.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

8/10

The 4th movie of the Harry Potter franchise is great

8 July 2023

The 4th movie is pivotal for the franchise - we finally get to see He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named return to power and pose a new level of threat for everyone. From this moment, we're shifted into a new, more sinister, and darker story where death, torture, and mischief of the evil kind are in play - quite a contrasting visual from the first movie where we're merely introduced to the world of magic though the gaze of an innocent young boy. The third movie only did that by painting Sirius Black as an escaped convict with only evil on his mind but now it's part of the real world, part of the main story.

The cast in this movie was splendid - not only did we get to see two actors who would meet up on In Bruges (2008) later but we also have David Tennant, who I just want to see in more villain roles now. His screen time might of been brief but he was just a crazy menace all the time and I loved his performance in particular.

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American Graffiti (1973)

8/10

A look back to the 60's from a hang-out perspective

6 July 2023

American Graffiti is a great hangout movie that takes us back to the 60's. With most of the action taking place over one night, we witness several teens spending their last night before leaving their city for college. Oddly enough, most of them get mixed up with people they've never met before, mostly in a comedic fashion, and we get to witness multiple different timelines that intervene from time to time.

What I love about the coming-of-age genre is the unadulterated presentation of different kinds of relationships. You barely know the people you watch but you get to know them through the bonds they showcase or make during the movie. The most entertaining one here was with one guy getting stuck with an underage girl when trying to pick up chicks and seeing how his dismissal of what happened turned into him being a big brother figure for the girl, but even with every other person or pair we followed - we witness bonds with people blossom, leaving us to reflect our own relationship with the friend group(s) we're familiar with and/or daydreaming about what could have been if we ended up within a similar situation back when we were younger.

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L'Avventura (1960)

7/10

Every frame belong to an art gallery

5 July 2023

This might be the most divine film I've ever seen, as every frame looked like it could land in an art gallery: the resolution makes each face glow, every scenery feels beautiful on the eyes even in black and white and the camera work, both from the perspective of static shots and movement to capture specific scenes or to refocus our gaze, captures everything under such light that looks to good to be real. I just wish that the plot would resonate the same level of beauty.

I can't tell whether I failed to read the symbols, but I just didn't find myself being entertained by the connotations I got from this movie. After Anna goes missing, her lover and best friend start to fall in love - whether due to the stress of losing their close one or just a spark of attraction, the love story between them just didn't feel natural to me. Something about their "on and off" behavior didn't click with me.

Claudia was portrayed as someone of exquisite beauty - there are multiple occasions when the gaze is focused onto her and her face, there's even a scene where men of in a small town gather just to look at her to reflect how most viewers look at her. Sandro, on the other hand, barely had any character besides being a common rich playboy, so his actions in the final act weren't even that surprising. The scene after that did felt genuine though and I believe it is meant to reflect on the gender roles a bit, to understand that we're complicated beings and that instincts aren't the only things forging our path forward. Also, guilt and remorse can present themselves in unusual ways when trying to cope and make us do stupid things and sometimes, trying to help ourselves, we end up hurting others.

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Angela (1995)

8/10

Awesome, this felt like a dream sequence that had me struggling to figure out what is real and what isn't

2 July 2023

Watching this film had me struggling to figure out what is real and what isn't. It felt like a dream sequence without any escape back to reality. In a way, this felt like a hangout movie where you just aimlessly try to figure something out but here we have a mysterious driving force - whether a sinister or a benevolent one - that keeps presenting itself in various signs. Or at least that is what we are made to think, as the surreal nature of the movie leaves us with a lot of questions, questioning the reality itself and questioning everything that is happening around us. Perhaps it's just the delusion of the two protagonists but it's still entertainingly creepy.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

7/10

Another great installment of the Harry Potter universe

2 July 2023

The third Harry Potter film didn't disappoint. Harry Potter, being angstier than ever, goes further down the trouble-making route but this time, he's under the impression that an escaped convict is after him. To protect him, dementors are placed around the perimeter of Hogwarts to protect him. Dementors might just be my favorite entity introduced in the Harry Potter universe so far - their aesthetic of hooded entities with skeleton arms that float around like a smoke cloud is frightful; their aura sucks the joy out of everything around them and leaves the atmosphere freezing wherever they go; and, if that's not scary enough, their presence makes you relive the worst experiences of your life. On top of that, we have the dementor's kiss, which is described as a faith worse than death - it sucks your soul out, leaving you living the rest of your life as a shell of a person.

The story might be my favorite overall, though the movie doesn't do the best job of explaining the motives of Serius Black - it's not made clear how he found out where Peter is hiding, which prompted his escape from Azkaban. Although there were glimpses of newspapers with pictures of Ron's family in Egypt, I don't believe it was hinted that Sirius saw them, watching the movie it just looks like Sirius spent 13 years in Azkaban and decided to escape all of a sudden.

Even though were some other minor inconveniences that did make the movie enjoyable but felt unexplained plot-wise, I'd like to focus on the positive: the time-traveling laws, presented in the movie, were executed magnificently. Reading it was cool but seeing it executed on the big screen felt even better. The whole encore act of the movie did have that satisfaction of explaining a lot of questions, which kind of makes me want to rewatch the movie just to see all those little bits that felt random but, in fact, were significant.

Overall, great movie. I finished the 4th book already, so I can't wait to watch the 4th movie next weekend.

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Oh, Sun (1970)

7/10

The harsh truth about how we prototype "outsiders"

30 June 2023

This is one of those movies that reminds you of the injustices rampaging through the world that we tend to dismiss or keep a blind eye on. The main idea is the alienation of the "others" - those who come from a different cultural background - in favor of the "locals". Here we see how in France a black is struggling to find a job and a place to live just because he's black - his education and his skills are often overlooked as, to the "locals" he's firstly labeled as black, all of his other traits (place of origin, cultural heritage, beliefs, profession, etc.) fall under this ethnic label. The same is with arabs - they're firstly arab, even if they been born in France or another European country and have lived their whole lives, perhaps they're even a 2nd or 3rd generation to live there - there's just a culture that isn't open to welcome there for who they are without putting an ethnic label on them first and basing everything off that one label.

In the movie we get to see these interactions and the gazes people throw at the black population in France, we can hear how seeing a black man with a white woman makes people uncomfortable and even bar-table theories about how in a 100 Africa will "occupy" France (figuratively, as in the African population is the future of France). The main protagonist, who we see calm and collected throughout the movie falls victim to this injustice on multiple levels - not only is he shunned from getting a job that would match his education and a comfortable apartment, but he's also broken physiologically - he starts losing it, and, with the most surreal experience movie experience I've encountered recently, he starts getting calls backs home from, what I assume, is nature - the indifference of the land he stepped on has caused him to hear ethnic drums, see signs that remind of unknown ethnic relics and urges to scream at the top of his lungs. To witness this is one thing, to explain it is different and I urge you to watch yourself to see how injustice can drive even the strongest of spirits mad.

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Excalibur (1981)

7/10

The legendary sword, the legendary grail and the fantasy tale for the ages

25 June 2023

I've never read anything about King Arthur, the Wizard Merlin, the Great Knight Lancelot, Excalibur, or the Holy Grail but their popularity is enough to make them iconic even for me because they have been reworked into various media over the years. Even RuneScape, an MMORPG that I put a lot of hours into, had included The Knights of the Round Table as NPC's and some of the quests in the game revolved around the mentioned legendary items. Naturally, the movie made me think of all the media I've encountered people, items, and storylines of Excalibur before, and how they shape my understanding of the story, or rather, how much the story has taken on a life of its own that lives outside the movie and Sir Thomas Malory's tale of the legendary King Arthur.

The movie features a loaded cast in a rather familiar medieval setting which also has an element of magic in existence. I did enjoy the story, the visuals, and the audio track were also very pleasing but I'm finding myself in a rather awkward position here as I think I developed a love-hate relationship with fantasies that feature a deep lore. In this movie, we saw a wide array of characters but it feels like besides King Arthur and Merlin (perhaps we could add Lancelot to this list), many of them had little to no character development. The knight that found and delivered the Holy Grail came out of nowhere, it feels, and I don't know if I skipped on his existence beforehand or if he really became significant only the second he appeared on the screen. Following each character did seem a bit difficult after a bit and so was following the story as a lot of motives felt underexplained or lacked motive (alternatively, I had this wild idea that their motives are so simple and we, the viewers, simply cannot grasp motivational patterns that simply form a straight line). I feel like it comes to our understanding of magic - magic is something that isn't present in the real world and each fantasy universe introduces its own rules that are out of the ordinary that it's hard to keep up with what can we do and what we cannot do in the universe in question. In the universe of this movie, we know it doesn't work with just the rules known in real-life but it sometimes can get a bit difficult to explain what kind of magic phenomenon just occurred - or rather, whether we just didn't understand what happened or we're not familiar with the laws of magic to understand what happened. This left us with some great scenes that used magic trickery but they were provided with context that's only fully decoded to those who are familiar with the context of this universe (whether the tale of King Arthur or just a good feel for the fantasy genre). It's rare for me to criticize the media but I feel the movie does a poor job of introducing us to the possibilities of magical phenomena and a lot of ambiguities occur simply because the presentation of the use of magic wasn't evident or the introduction into the reach of magic in this universe. Other than that, the movie told a wonderful tale that is filled with a fair amount of action and drama.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

7/10

The 2nd movie in the series is a good follow up in introducing us to the world of magic

24 June 2023

The first movie is magical in the sense that introduces us to the world of magic - it gives us a glimpse of how a world of wizards might look and establishes the basics of magic. The second movie here extends our understanding of what magic can achieve - traveling with floo powder, making cars fly (even making them sentient), and temporarily transforming into others are just some examples portrayed in this movie. Even though we know a lot about magic at this point, there's still a lot left to unpack in order to understand the capabilities of this world.

What surprises me the most is that this movie, being close to 3 hours long, somehow still feels rushed. It moves on so fast that it's remarkable. The story is right there but I believe that without reading the book I'd have a hard time following what is going on. On one hand, the (potential) confusion is good for the average viewer, as the world of magic sometimes does require a lot of explanation and in this way we can put some effort into our own interpretations by learning about magic our own way. On the other hand, I feel like reading the book is kind of like a requirement to understand the plot or the filler that connects some of the dots. Some of the key characters (Ginnie Weasley, for example) in this movie barely had any screen time even though their input into the story is colossal. For the mystery plot of the movie, trying to guess who's the culprit, the lack of screen time for the suspects ends up in us guessing just from what the protagonists determine based on insufficient evidence.

Overall, this movie is still really good besides having the unusual trait of being both long and rushed. It has some of the most memorable and iconic scenes - mainly the ones that include the spiders, which may be the only scene I remember from the movie when I watched it for the first time 15 years ago - and this is also the final movie with Richard Harris portraying Dumbledore as Harris died a few months before the premiere of this movie. Our relationship with the world of magic grows deeper with this movie and it still feels like we're only in the introductory level. Can't wait to see (and simultaneously read) what's next.

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Return to Seoul (2022)

6/10

A bit lethargic but the story is worth it

23 June 2023

The story is simultaneously simple and complicated - without looking into the plot too much, the story is about our protagonist reconnecting with her biological parents, however, the themes of language and culture barriers, national identity, social relations, and bonds among people make this movie anything but simple. I have a ton of questions I'd like to ask about this movie but I also don't expect any easy answers - the bonds among different groups of people the protagonist interacts with make it feel like she's a social chameleon, changing her social bubble after every few years. With a new group of people around her, her relationship with her parents (biological and, to the extent of my understanding, adoptive too) changes as well. Storywise, it was interesting to experience but it felt lethargic, barely gaining my interest at some points. The flip side of things is that it made me think a lot and the movie did feel like an almost blank easel that I could use to reflect on my life by using the colors that reflect my personal experiences. Even though I didn't experience anything of the likes the protagonist went through, the bonds she made (and lost or put aside) can resonate with anyone who has ever stepped out of their personal isolated space and interacted with the social dimension, being part of the common discourse equation.

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I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918)

8/10

Challenging gender norms before it was cool

21 June 2023

This movie, portrayed in three parts, gives us a good look at how ridiculous expectations for a man or a woman can be. In the first part, it's about the gaze upon a woman, how a woman should dress, act and what one should avoid. The tomboy protagonist insists that it's ridiculous, that being a man is easier, but upon changing her appearance to look like a man, she's introduced to all the expectations thrown upon men: in the second part, the gaze upon a man is portrayed as a gentleman who mustn't shown any weakness, who must accept and endure any roughness thrown upon them and who cannot engage in any stereotypically unmanly activities (make-up, for example). The third part is more of a romantic and comedic conclusion with the tomboy protagonist accepting that she doesn't want to be a man afterall but I believe the beauty of the movie lies in questioning the mentioned gender stereotypes, portraying just how ridiculous they actually are. This is a sublime comedy that really hits the mark well.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

8/10

Dwelling on dreams and fantasies has never been so tempting

17 June 2023

Recently I participated in a family event that I didn't find too entertaining. To kill time, I decided to look around the bookshelf and found "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" - the first book in the Harry Potter series. Remembering how I got into the series when I was a kid, I decided to start reading it again as I have little to no memory of the plot. Consequently, it has been at least 15 years since the world of Harry Potter has been a part of my life. It was a pleasant light read, bringing back a lot of memories, so of course I had to watch the movie as well.

The thing about books and their adaptations is that one media will never be equal to the other - not only by the means the story is broadcasted upon the watcher but also by the story itself. Different driving forces control our gaze, so different elements are used to portray the story, leaving the book and its adaptation to be somewhat different in the plot. Keeping that in mind, the review of this movie will not include the narrative of it being different from the book in any way, shape, or form. As they are two different media, different creative minds worked to portray their works to the reader/watcher and it would be unjust to praise or criticize a creator for his success or failure to represent the original medium in the context of an adaptation. The adaptation is meant to provide us with a story that we love in a different medium and sometimes there will be changes but those changes are the product of the new medium, not the product of adapting the story to a new medium. So, without any more delay, let's get to talking about "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", the movie.

The movie is an honest introduction to the fantasy world of magic. Harry Potter, a boy who is destined to be a great magician, doesn't know anything about the world of magic as his aunt and uncle tried everything in their power to keep that life away from Harry, so his journey starts with no knowledge about magic whatsoever. For us, the viewer, this is an advantage since we get to learn along as this new world slowly opens up upon Harry and takes us on a journey to Hogwarts.

In Hogwarts, we get to four student Houses - colleges or residences, that separate the students based on their personalities - Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff in this movie had little to no representation, only Gryffindor and Slytherin had any sort of impact: Gryffindor being the House where our main protagonists are assigned and Slytherin, in contrast, representing the soft antagonist role in the story. I say soft because the way they are portrayed makes it look like they're just a hindrance to the protagonists but they don't have enough weight to be the main villains. The rhetoric of the movie paints Gryffindor students as the good guys - they are portrayed as brave, courageous, and fighting for fair causes - and Slytherin students as bad/evil guys - they are portrayed as "all bark, no bite" kind when they are talking (especially looking at the Slytherin quidditch team members), they are made to sound like Bond villains and there's even a remark that most wizards that turned mad (evil) were once students at House Slytherin. It doesn't help that the headmaster of this house is Severus Snape, the guy who dresses in black and sounds like the Sith lord. The contrast between these two houses results in bad blood between these two houses and we only get to see the situation from one side, which is sometimes a pity because I'd like to think that all houses are great with great histories and would like to see something positive from Slytherin. But, of course, this is the story of Harry Potter so we only get to see the picture that's made of events that directly involve Harry.

Although Slytherin provides us with the antagonist's presence, the main villain of the movie lies elsewhere. The story mainly revolves around introducing us to the world of magic, different spells, different activities wizards partake in, and just random quirks that separate the life of a wizard from the life of a muggle (human) but there's also a mystery plotline that results in a great display of courage in the ending phrase of the movie. There's tension, there are twists and then there's just kids having fun and finding something to smile about. The main charm of the movie is the innocence and the unexpected nature of magic, sometimes various creatures start roaming the halls of Hogwarts, causing a panic, sometimes the staircases are moving and shifting the direction of the pathways, sometimes it's just a simple spell-ending up in a small explosion out of nowhere. Magic is displayed as having limitless options and in order to explore those options you need to know about both real and fictional herbs, creatures, and phonetics.

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